In distant past years, the common home entertainment media used to record and play music was vinyl twelve and seven inch audio records, with limited play times of five to forty minutes, and audio cassette tapes with limited play times of sixty minutes. There was no ability to select and playback partial contents, as play was serial from start to finish. Control of the record-playback units was manual with simple function push buttons, and while several vinyl records could be stacked for play, they could be played only serially in their entirety. Cataloging, storing, organizing and selecting, referred to herein as Inventory Control, consisted of simply stacking records on a shelf so that the album titles could be read, or storing cassette tapes in a box so the labels could be read.
Various simple computer software database management programs have been available which permit computer keyboard entry and processing of data such as album names, track titles, and associated data such as performer names. These programs could perform in a simple inventory management manner such that once data was manually entered into the software, the data could be organized and sorted in user defined ways, and labels and or catalogs could be printed. A disadvantage of such a simple inventory control system is that it has no provision for computer based automated interaction with the recorder-player units or the user in scheduling and executing play-record operations. With this simple approach, the process of keeping the inventory data base updated, and of recording or playing audio or video media, was highly labor intensive, subject to error, and not electronically integrated in that the system does not control the record-playback units, nor provide for automatic unattended means of data base acquisition.
In more recent years there has been a proliferation in the types, quality and availability of recorded audio-visual media and their associated record-playback units. This media includes all types of analog and digital recording means on which audio and/or video data is recorded and played back. This media includes but is not limited to Compact Discs (CDs), small three inch by five inch analog audio cassettes, the DAT digital version of these tapes, the larger single reel analog tapes, analog vinyl records, video discs, TV type cassette tapes, and similar recording media such as the new DCC and MD format CDs. At the same time there has been a significant growth in the sophistication of the record-playback units in terms of remote control of unit features such as interconnect switching and operational function programming.
This phenomenal growth in the number of types, quality, sophistication and availability of the recorded audio-visual media, the record-playback units, and the remote hand-held controllers, has created an information and media management crisis for the average music and video lover who desires to store, retrieve, play and manage a large inventory of Compact Discs (CDs), video tapes, audio tapes, video discs and vinyl records. Additionally, digital format recording media have permitted several hours of high quality entertainment on one media such as a CD, making it a challenge to browse inventory, select a media and play selected portions. With the increased play time per media, and the growing capability of recorder-players to hold one or more cartridges, which in turn hold 6 or more media such as CDs or analog or digital cassette tapes, there has been an increased need for a user-friendly computer based inventory and control system. There are no present day home entertainment control systems to conveniently inventory medium to large album collections and control multiple playback units, with minimal operator skills required.
Home audio-visual equipment users are generally unsophisticated in their ability to understand and operate much of the new audio-visual equipment on the market, including the more complex hand held controllers. Industry sources say that up to twenty-five percent of newly purchased audio-visual equipment is returned because the owners found it too complicated to operate. The hand held controllers are becoming more sophisticated to the increasing discomfort to the average user. The recent introduction of the ability of a remote controller to accept universal codes to control VCRs has helped, as has another recent technology introduction in the remote controller being able to respond to spoken commands. These are limited however in their ability to solve the overall user interface problem.
There presently exists a need to create a computer based audio-visual inventory and control system which can effectively manage the increasing size of audio-visual collections and increasing sophistication of recording-playback systems, while providing the user with an exceptionally user friendly control interface. This interface would, in effect, hide sophisticated computer coding and controls from the computer illiterate user, and empower the user to enjoy and manage the system without technical intimidation.
Audio-visual industry standards have recently emerged which provide for the widespread use of wireless remote control Control-S Infra-Red (IR) beams for the media recorders-players, and the built-in capability of those units to recognize and address individual tracks or recordings. Owners of audio-visual systems frequently have several different hand-held IR remote controllers in a multiple playback-record unit system. Most audio-visual components such as television sets (TVs), video tape recorder-playback cassette recorder units (VCRs), laser video disc players, compact disc (CD) record-playback units, audio cassette record-playback units, AM/FM tuners, amplifiers and interconnect switch boxes are now available with the industry standard Control-S IR wireless remote control protocol, and can be controlled with a now familiar IR remote controller. This is normally used to allow a user to command the recorder-playback units to perform certain functions one at a time, or store a limited list of functions or selections and perform them over some time interval.
Existing technology permits a hand held universal controller to be preprogrammed with a set of control codes for most sophisticated audio-visual components, and such a controller can be used with a particular set of components simply by selecting the control options required. While this simplifies the training of the controller for a set of equipment, it is still awkward for the average person to use, and is only a partial solution to the overall inventory management and control problem.
Television and AM/FM broadcast or air time guides are published regularly in everything from individual station air time guides, to specialized publications like TV Guide, and daily newspapers. From these, an audio-visual system user may make manual entries to effect play or record of selected programs. Hand-held remote controllers are available which permit a single universal code to be entered to automatically set the channel number and record start/stop times, using the universal code published in newspaper and magazine guides. There is no provision however for subscription to a conventional mail or electronic mail of digital TV or AM/FM listing data base, and computer assisted browsing and selection of programs for play or record.
At the present time, home audio-visual record-playback units have no provision to communicate back to the remote hand held controller or to an audio-visual computer controller. The communication path is uni-directional in that the record-playback units only receive IR information from the remote controller, but do not transmit information back to the remote controllers, and the IR remote controllers only send information to the record-playback units but do not receive information back from the record-playback units. The present day audio-visual record-playback units can not communicate bi-directionally. Thus the record-playback units can not transmit information to the controller which the controller could then act upon or otherwise display feed back information to the user or to automatically control the operation of the record-playback units. The uni-directional IR transmission path disadvantageously limits the interaction between record-playback units and the controller.
High resolution color Cathode Ray Tube (CRT) monitors, and newer flat panel displays, are now able to provide text and graphic computer displays, and equally important, to function in a touch- screen mode and support a graphic image TV format display mode. The touch screen mode and high quality graphics display has been used in non-audio-visual control systems to provide simple, easily understood software interface through which the user interacts comfortably with the computer screen menu, and the operator requires little or no computer training. Disadvantageously, present day home entertainment audio-visual record-playback controllers do not incorporate the advances of high resolution touch-screen mode technology for the convenience of the unsophisticated user.
Existing integrated audio-visual database and control systems have not been adapted for electronic access to album color graphics and media titles and track listings. While electronic image scanners are available and could be used by the audio-visual system user to scan album covers and track information into the computer to generate data base for inventory, control and display, such scanners are relatively expensive and require operator expertise. However, electronic mail is now common place. Low cost communication modems connected between home computers and a phone line can perform automatic unattended call and answer and communication with other computers.
Present day home entertainment systems do not store and display album graphics, or media and track information. Existing IR contoilers and audio-visual inventory database systems have not been adapted to receive mailed computer readable data storage discs or digital transmissions through a modem into an audio-visual control system computer enabling the user to request, receive and readily use album color graphic images and album title and track information. When received, this information could be automatically integrated into the data base and made available for browse and display, which would reduce the need for A-V System users to key in all of the media content information.
Existing A-V control systems have not been adapted with programmed inventory and control capabilities to provide a convenient means of inventory control and control of audio-visual play/record for home entertainment which system would take advantage of the low cost of computer equipment which has continued to decrease over the past decade. The prior art systems do not provide for low cost audio-visual inventory and control home entertainment computer system which must meet the requirement of being user-friendly with minimal education or training required on the part of the user. Such capabilies should relieve the user of much of the audio-visual media inventory data acquisition, management, search and selection burden. Such capabilites should make maximum use of the Control-S IR protocol for communication with audio-visual components, and should offer application extensions that include subscription for and electronic acquisition and integration of AM/FM radio and TV program listings, media title and track content listings, and digital "album cover" color images, by digital computer disc or electronic mail, so that listings can be browsed, selections made, and play-record sessions scheduled to take place automatically. These and other disadvantages and limitations of the existing home IR controllers and inventory database systems are solved and reduced by the present invention.